The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-12-17
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
PEE woRIp,s MOTIVE roRcE.

statistics compiled in Berlin give the aggregate
46,O0e,O0o. Each steam horse power is equiva-
lent to three times an actual horse power, and q
living horse is equal to seven men so that the
worlds engines represent appraximstelyth the work
of 1000, 100000 men, or more than double the
working population of the earth, whose total num-
Der of inhabitants is l,455,s2s,OOO. Of the total
steam force, not including locomotives the United
States has 100000 horse power; England, T.
100000; Germany, 4,5OO,0 France, 5000, 600;
and Austria, 1,50O,o 900. The locomotives of the
world number 100000, and represent 100000
horse power.
ELECTRICITY FROM FUEL.
Though the problem of converting heat directly
into electricity has received much attention. as its
great Importance would warrant, no thermo bat
terry has yet been capable of returning one per
cent of the energy represented by the fuel applied
to it, Mr.. Edison, however, in his "pyromagnetic
generator of electricity" as described at the re-
cent meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, believes himself able to
get electric power directly from coal with econ
omy equal to, and probably greatly exceeding,
that of the indirect method of ordinary dynamos.
His apparatus is based on the principle that the
magnetic metals-iron, nickel and cobalt-lose
their magnetizabiity when moderately heated,
the heating and cooling Of these metals in
q magnetic field causing variations in their mag
netism which produce an electric current in a
surrounding coil of wire.
DELUGE OF NEW ELEMENTS
Rapid as has been the increase in the number
of supposed elementary substances during the last
few years, sober scientific men have hardly been
prepared for the addition of more than a dozen
new elements to the list in single announce
ment. Yet the discovery is reported on the au-
thority of Messrs. Kruss and Nelson, Swedish
chemists of highest repute. Their researches have
been carried out upon the nitrates Of the rare
earths contained in thorite, wohlerte, cerite,
fergusonite, and euxenite, and have been long and
laborious. The spectroscopic evidence presented
by these investigations has made the conclusion
inevitable that didymium consists of not less than
nine distinct elements, holmium of seven, erbium
of two thulium of two, and samaritan of two.
THE FATE OF WORLDS.
The earth, says Flamarion, was born it will
die. 1t will die when its vital elements have been
spent, or perhaps by the extinction of the sun in
whose rays it's existence is suspended. It may
die by the shock of celestial body which it might
meet in its path but this end of the world is the
most improbable of all. 1t may die, say by
the slow absorption of its elements. In truth, it
is probable that the water and the air are dimin-
ishing. The ocean, like the atmosphere, appears
to have been much more considerable than at
present. The crust of the earth is penetrated by
the waters, which combine chemically, with the
rocks. 1t is almost certain that the interior tenn
perature of the globe at tensklometres (about six
miles, of depth reaches the boiling point and im-
pedes further descent of the waters but the
absorption will continue with the cooling of the
globe. The oxygen, nitrogen and carbonic acid,
which compose our atmosphere appear to suffer
likewise slow absorption.
CHEMICAL ANOMALY.
An astonishing result has been reached by DR..
Richardson, the English Psychologist, in some ex-
periments on the respiration of animals in pure
oxygen. In most cases, steady flow of fresh
oxygen rendered the animals confined in it excited
and feverish, and none were quieted made
sleepy. When, however, the oxygen after having
been passed once through the chambers contain
ing the animals, collected, purified, and again
used all the warm blooded animals-such as the
cat, dog, guinea-pig, rabbit and pigeon-became
drowsy and fell quietly asleep; and when the gas
was again used after another publication, the
sleep became deeper, and some of the animals
soon died. The oxygen appeared chemically pure
at each time of using and the cause of it's remark
able change in effect is as yet mystery. Wheth
er some peculiar modification of oxygen is formed
during respiration whether the toxic properties
are due to some active product of respiration
which has escaped detection in the inhaled gas, is
q problem which will doubtless be studied with
much interest.
CLoUD-MEAsURING.
The most important work in the measurement
of clouds is done at the University of Upsala,
Sweden, by Messrs. Ekholm and Hagstrom.-
When opportunity offers, the heights of clouds
are determined thrice daily by simultaneous OBJ
servations at two telephonicaly connected stations
about mile apart. The angles of conspicuous
points are carefully noted by of specially
adapted instruments, giving much more satisfac-
tory data for fixing the distances than have been
7aAteine2 by-.As photographs method attempted
at Kew. The greatest height of any cloud yet
measured is 43,SO0 feet, and the highest velocity
is III miles an hour for cloud at $4,000 feet
The most important result thus far reached from
these measurements is the fact that clouds are
quite regularly distributed in three layers, the
mean summer levels for Upsala being: low clouds
stratus cumulus, cumulo nimbus, 2,000-6,0O0
feet middle clouds-strato- CIRRUS, cumulo-crrus,
12,000-15,000 feet high clouds-cirrus, GIRO
stratus, GIRO -cumulus, 20,000-27,000 feet.
MISCELLANEOUS.
There is, as Prof. Thompson remarks, no as
signable "yelocity Of electricity" as this must
vary with the current and the conductor. Wheat
stone, in 1888, seemed to show transmission
velocity of 2SS,000 miles second through copper
wire, but in late experiments signals were sent
over ordinary telegraph wires on poles, and had
a rate of only $4,000 to 16,6O0 miles. With wires
near the earth the velocity Il, 900 miles, but
reached $4,000 on very high wires.
The common thistle, which now covers large
areas in Southern Chill, is said to have been in
troduced there by an Englishman, who imported
bushel of seed, and sowed it under the delusion
that the plant would prove valuable for fodder.